The last week was as much fun as a guy could ask for. I got the chance to take my buddy, Jim Baichtal, to do something I love; chase pronghorn. Some of you probably recognize Jim as the guy who smoked, full pun intended, this great Sitka Blacktail in the episode below.
[video=youtube_share;cvLGuAl0Xs8]https://youtu.be/cvLGuAl0Xs8[/video]
Jim knew Sitka Blacktails was one of my life dreams. Since he is a renowned expert on hunting them, when he offered for me to join his 2015 hunt, I stammered and stuttered as I tried to say "Yes" without showing my excitement to hunt Sitka Blacktails with "the Man" himself.
Roll the calendar forward a couple years. Jim has always wanted to take a nice pronghorn with his traditional custom-made .58 Caliber Hawken muzzleloader. I told him it would be my pleasure to take him to some part of the west I have chased them. Jim had been told by many that he needed to sit water if he was to kill one at 100 yards, or less. I disagreed and convinced him to apply in a good Wyoming unit.
When the Wyoming draw results came in, our excitement was tempered, as the day prior his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. That being the highest priority one could imagine, I cancelled our return Sitka Blacktail hunt and told Jim to forget about our idea to film me, Jim, and Tyler (cameraman) each using a different weapon; rifle, Hawken, and bow. Jim apologized for the big change this created in our filming calendar. I assured him that this hunt was not in the top 1,000 concerns he needs to worry about and to do whatever was necessary to help his wife get through what was sure to be a bad couple months.
We stayed in touch during the chemo treatments, mostly to provide encouragement and some distraction by talking about the Sitka Blacktail hunt we have now deferred until next August. Jim stated his wife was adamant that she would be good enough for him to go on the Wyoming antelope hunt in late September. I would humor him by considering it, but never expected it to happen.
A couple weeks ago, Jim called to confirm that the hunt was on. His wife was now back home, showing the amazing fortitude that I have come to learn is woven in her DNA. Pushing Jim out the door to catch a ferry, her parting comment as something to the affect, "Don't shoot the first one you see."
Jim landed in Bozeman on Sunday. We packed and were on the road before daylight on Monday, giving us a chance to get checked into our motel and spend the late afternoon/evening scouring the area Jim had drawn. Lots of bucks glassed, but nothing to get excited about. Did allow for a few "fake stalks" with Jim and the camera guy, Michael, to coordinate how they would get within 100 yards in the short sage of this unit. An evening dinner with Eli and Tony Grimmett was equally disconcerting when they told me how the normally great units where they find big bucks were a struggle this year. They had not been in Jim's unit, so they had no input to give on buck quality this year, other than some general parts of the unit where they had seen good bucks in years past. Dang, not the news I hoped for and seemed to confirm what we had seen that afternoon.
The next morning had us out as the sun was rising, white pronghorn butts decorating the landscape in numbers that had Jim shaking his head. We stopped and looked at every single buck, doing so from multiple angles to make sure we weren't writing off a good buck that could fake us out from the wrong angle. That made for slow progress when there are this many bucks. Footage of animals will not be a problem in this unit.
By the time the heat waves started disrupting the focus of optics, Jim had located a buck with nice prongs high on his horns. The only way to see if he was "Big Hank" was to hike down into that bottom and get a close look. And we did. When Jim and Michael split off from my location for the potential stalk, the buck stood and came closer to my position for the purposes of posturing to another buck. I got a much better look at him. My first thought was, "Jim, do not shoot this buck. He is tall and thin, with only some high prongs to make him look better than he is."
Jim and Michael got to 70 yards. Seeing him to be less than some bucks we had already passed, Jim drew his muzzleloader only for the sake of aiming practice, not even drawing back the hammer. Whew, I thought he was going to shoot.
The rest of the day was spent investigating new areas. A couple more stalks produced no shot or no buck worth shooting on the first full day of the hunt. Jim was having a blast, not ever being in antelope country during the peak rut. I was having as much fun as he was. That even we were burning fast miles, using the last light to inspect some basins that held herds, only giving them cursory inspection for the purpose of starting there the next morning. I did put the spotter up on a group that had what I thought was an exceptional buck with big prongs and very good length. At the final minutes of light, it was hard to tell with complete certainty, but gave us the starting location for the next morning.
[video=youtube_share;cvLGuAl0Xs8]https://youtu.be/cvLGuAl0Xs8[/video]
Jim knew Sitka Blacktails was one of my life dreams. Since he is a renowned expert on hunting them, when he offered for me to join his 2015 hunt, I stammered and stuttered as I tried to say "Yes" without showing my excitement to hunt Sitka Blacktails with "the Man" himself.
Roll the calendar forward a couple years. Jim has always wanted to take a nice pronghorn with his traditional custom-made .58 Caliber Hawken muzzleloader. I told him it would be my pleasure to take him to some part of the west I have chased them. Jim had been told by many that he needed to sit water if he was to kill one at 100 yards, or less. I disagreed and convinced him to apply in a good Wyoming unit.
When the Wyoming draw results came in, our excitement was tempered, as the day prior his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. That being the highest priority one could imagine, I cancelled our return Sitka Blacktail hunt and told Jim to forget about our idea to film me, Jim, and Tyler (cameraman) each using a different weapon; rifle, Hawken, and bow. Jim apologized for the big change this created in our filming calendar. I assured him that this hunt was not in the top 1,000 concerns he needs to worry about and to do whatever was necessary to help his wife get through what was sure to be a bad couple months.
We stayed in touch during the chemo treatments, mostly to provide encouragement and some distraction by talking about the Sitka Blacktail hunt we have now deferred until next August. Jim stated his wife was adamant that she would be good enough for him to go on the Wyoming antelope hunt in late September. I would humor him by considering it, but never expected it to happen.
A couple weeks ago, Jim called to confirm that the hunt was on. His wife was now back home, showing the amazing fortitude that I have come to learn is woven in her DNA. Pushing Jim out the door to catch a ferry, her parting comment as something to the affect, "Don't shoot the first one you see."
Jim landed in Bozeman on Sunday. We packed and were on the road before daylight on Monday, giving us a chance to get checked into our motel and spend the late afternoon/evening scouring the area Jim had drawn. Lots of bucks glassed, but nothing to get excited about. Did allow for a few "fake stalks" with Jim and the camera guy, Michael, to coordinate how they would get within 100 yards in the short sage of this unit. An evening dinner with Eli and Tony Grimmett was equally disconcerting when they told me how the normally great units where they find big bucks were a struggle this year. They had not been in Jim's unit, so they had no input to give on buck quality this year, other than some general parts of the unit where they had seen good bucks in years past. Dang, not the news I hoped for and seemed to confirm what we had seen that afternoon.
The next morning had us out as the sun was rising, white pronghorn butts decorating the landscape in numbers that had Jim shaking his head. We stopped and looked at every single buck, doing so from multiple angles to make sure we weren't writing off a good buck that could fake us out from the wrong angle. That made for slow progress when there are this many bucks. Footage of animals will not be a problem in this unit.
By the time the heat waves started disrupting the focus of optics, Jim had located a buck with nice prongs high on his horns. The only way to see if he was "Big Hank" was to hike down into that bottom and get a close look. And we did. When Jim and Michael split off from my location for the potential stalk, the buck stood and came closer to my position for the purposes of posturing to another buck. I got a much better look at him. My first thought was, "Jim, do not shoot this buck. He is tall and thin, with only some high prongs to make him look better than he is."
Jim and Michael got to 70 yards. Seeing him to be less than some bucks we had already passed, Jim drew his muzzleloader only for the sake of aiming practice, not even drawing back the hammer. Whew, I thought he was going to shoot.
The rest of the day was spent investigating new areas. A couple more stalks produced no shot or no buck worth shooting on the first full day of the hunt. Jim was having a blast, not ever being in antelope country during the peak rut. I was having as much fun as he was. That even we were burning fast miles, using the last light to inspect some basins that held herds, only giving them cursory inspection for the purpose of starting there the next morning. I did put the spotter up on a group that had what I thought was an exceptional buck with big prongs and very good length. At the final minutes of light, it was hard to tell with complete certainty, but gave us the starting location for the next morning.
